Life on a Tea Estate
Featured

WILLS POINT, TX (ANS – November 8, 2017) -- Rows and rows of lush green shrubs stretch into the horizon. Women dot the scenery, plucking tea leaves and stuffing what they’ve collected into bags they carry on their heads. Some women smile, enjoying the slivers of conversation they have with each other. Others keep their focus on their job, plucking and stuffing, so their families will have enough income to make it through the day.

For as much natural beauty that surrounds the tea estate, the lives of these laborers are far from beautiful.

Parents can’t afford to buy their children clothing.

“All I can do is just tell [my children], ‘This time I am not able to buy your clothes. Maybe next coming Christmas, I will buy some dress,’” says Mudit, father of six.

Wives are sent away to find work.

“I am barely able to buy food for my children. That was one of the reasons why I had to send my wife to [the city],” says Bhavin, father of three. “As a domestic help she has gone there so she can send us some money, and at least we can maintain the family.”

People have no restroom facilities.

“We used to go out in the open in the tea garden. That is the practice here,” says Iniyavan, a tea garden laborer. “There is lots of inconvenience when you have ladies at home, when you have children at home. For them, going to the toilet in the open, it’s not very good . . .”

Fathers suddenly vanish when the burden of caring for the family becomes too much.

“I have seen . . . the father, the head of the family, all of a sudden left the home and gone elsewhere,” says Pastor Ekanpreet, a GFA-supported pastor serving in the area. “Once the man leaves the home, he never returns or nobody hears anything about that man.”

Young boys and girls grow up thinking drugs, alcohol and promiscuity are a normal way of life.

“People here tend to live a morally loose type of life,” Ekanpreet says. “They do not think much about ethical values or moral values in their lives.”

Pastor Ekanpreet grew up facing these same struggles.

“I lived a very worldly life,” he says. “I used to drink. I used to smoke. I did every worldly thing that a person who doesn’t know the Lord does. … I even told my wife, ‘Look, now we have two children. The money that I make from labor work, from the tea garden, is not sufficient. You sell wine and drinks at home so we can make a better living.’”

But then Ekanpreet came to know Jesus. After nearly dying from a sickness, Ekanpreet devoted his life to serving the Lord, who healed him. He left the tea estate to pursue life in ministry, but the tea-estate life was never far from his mind.

“I wanted to continue to work among the tea estate,” he says. “I am deeply attached and associated emotionally with those living in tea gardens.”

After graduating from Bible college, Ekanpreet returned with a yearning to help the people he knew were living empty, hand-to-mouth existences—like he once was. But it took patience and enduring a tremendous amount of opposition to establish the work.

Fighting the Past

Pastor Ekanpreet and other missionaries were up against a colonial-era mentality among the tea estate laborers, who thought Christians were only out to make money and turn them into slaves.

“That was the misunderstanding the people had about the work we were doing,” Ekanpreet says. “But when we understood that, our first goal . . . was to bring change in the hearts and minds of the people who were thinking like that.”

Pastor Ekanpreet and other GFA-supported workers searched for ways, even using their own resources and finances, to show the tea garden laborers God’s love by caring for their needs.

“If anybody was not able to send their children to school, we helped them. If anybody was not able to buy medicine for their sickness, . . . we started to help those people,” Ekanpreet says.

Through these practical expressions of Christ’s love, the people who once opposed Ekanpreet’s ministry began to soften their hearts.

“There is something strange, new in these Christians,” they said. “They are not here to make anybody slaves . . . but their purpose is to help the poor and the needy, which we are not able to do.”

Blazing Forward

Pastor Ekanpreet knew the people living in the tea estate had many needs, many struggles. He saw their poverty, but he also understood their desire to thrive. He knew they needed lasting help, help that would sustain them.

So he set up Christmas gift distributions to give families income-generating gifts like barnyard animals, sewing machines, rickshaws and other items to alleviate their financial burdens.

People also received other gifts that would help their health and protect their dignity, gifts like toilets and mosquito nets. Seven Jesus Wells were also installed throughout the tea estate, allowing anyone access to clean, safe water.

A Bridge of Hope center opened, giving kids, some of whom sold alcohol or were beggars, a chance for a better life. It also relieved some of the pressure parents felt to properly provide for their children, while at the same time imparting good morals to the students.

For 15 years, Pastor Ekanpreet and other GFA-supported workers have served the more than 10,000 people living in the tea estate and surrounding areas, showing them in big and small ways how much Jesus loves them. Ekanpreet has seen the mindset of people change, and entire communities have been uplifted in society, but there is still much work to be done and more people who need to find the Hope worth living for.

Note: Gospel for Asa (www.gfa.org) has – for more than 30 years -- provided humanitarian assistance and spiritual hope to millions across Asia, especially among those who have yet to hear the Good News. Last year, this included more than 75,000 sponsored children, free medical services for more than 180,000 people, 6,000 wells drilled, 11,000 water filters installed, Christmas presents for more than 400,000 needy families, and spiritual teaching available in 110 languages in 14 nations through radio ministry.

For more information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or go to: http://www.gfa.org/press.

Photo captions: 1) A tea estate worker. (GFA) 2) Pastor Ekanpreet. (GFA). 3) Two girls who attend the Bridge of Hope Center. (GFA). 4) They now have their own well. 5) Pastor Ekanpreet walking through the area. (GFA).

*Names of people and places may have been changed for privacy and security reasons. Images are GFA stock photos used for representation purposes and are not the actual person/location, unless otherwise noted.

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net). Please tell your friends and colleagues that they can receive a complimentary subscription to our news service by going to the above ANS website and signing up there.

Make Your Shopping Count

[pb_row background="none" solid_color_value="#FFFFFF" solid_color_color="#ffffff" gradient_color="0% #FFFFFF,100% #000000" gradient_color_css="" gradient_direction="vertical" pattern="" repeat="full" image="" stretch="none" position="center center" paralax="no" parallax_scroll="no" video_url="" autoplay="no" border_width_value_="0" border_style="solid" border_color="#000" width_value="" width_unit="%" div_padding="" div_padding_top="10" div_padding_bottom="10" div_padding_right="10" div_padding_left="10" css_suffix="" id_wrapper="" ][pb_column span="span12"][pb_tab el_title="Shopping" initial_open="1" fade_effect="no" tab_position="top" appearing_animation="0" ][pb_tab_item heading="Amazon" icon="" ]Now you can support ASSIST every time you shop on Amazon. With every purchase you make Amazon will donate 0.5% of the purchase price to ASSIST. It’s very easy to make this happen. All you need to do is shop via www.smile.amazon.com and select the charity of your choosing for your donation. I am asking that you make Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times (ASSIST) your designated charity for the site. AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know with the same products, same prices and same service. It’s that simple![/pb_tab_item][pb_tab_item heading="CGF" ]Another way to help ASSIST is to make purchases through the Charitable Giving Foundation. Just go to the CGF website and everything is explained: charitablegivingfoundation.org I recommend you view the short video. After you make a purchase, click on the “Causes” tab and fill in the “Select a Cause – After Purchase” form. This form allows you to select your designated charity. Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times (ASSIST) is located under the “Religious” section. You will only need to fill in the form the first time you make a purchase.[/pb_tab_item][/pb_tab][/pb_column][/pb_row]